The “ColorFoil” collection by Sally Hansen immediately caught my eye when I was at Target – SHINY! Just look at the awesome, shiny square bottle.
And I’m happy to say that the color matches the bottle and the formula is surprisingly easy to use – as long as you follow the directions and make sure you keep your brush strokes directly in line with your nail’s natural “grain”.
The directions say not to use a basecoat or topcoat, but as usual I didn’t read those instructions at first. Here is what the polish looked like when I tried to use Essie Protein Base Coat. The basecoat made the nail polish kinda lift away in spots and clumped the polish up. Not pretty – ooops!
Don’t try this at home ladies, lol! As you can see you can’t use a basecoat with these polishes – so if you’re like me and have ridges (ummm…more like SUPER ridges) you will be able to see every flaw with this polish. For example you can see the indent really distinctly on the tip of my index finger from a nail split I usually would fill in with basecoat (very first photo).
I also added a topcoat before I had read the instructions, but had no issues here. I tested three different topcoats and didn’t see any issues (Seche Vite, Milani, and NYC “Classy-Glassy”). The Milani topcoat, which I know to smear polish, did darken the polish a bit, but it still looked great.
Overall I am in LOVE with this polish and I am now ready to hunt down the rest of the collection!
Sally Hansen Color Foil Nail Polish Review
- Price – $6.99 at Target, $6.99-$8.99 at mass drugstores.
- Official Site – Sally Hansen Special Effects (ColorFoil no longer online).
- Description – Liquid nail polish meant to mimic colored foil, or an “aluminum” reflective effect.
- Best Use – Solid polish and shiny nail art.
- Size – 0.34 oz/10 ml
- Packaging – Has a rectangular shaped bottle with a long black handle. You cannot see the polish from the outside since the bottle has a shiny plastic coating that matches the color inside.
- Brush – Medium sized standard black brush. The brush actually works perfectly for this type of polish.
- Ingredients – ColorFoil no longer on their official site.
- Cruelty Free – Yes, not tested on animals. Read more at Sally Hansen FAQS.
- Formula/Uniformity – This polish actually has a very nice and smooth formula considering its a specialty polish. Goes on nicely in just one coat but you can see the brush strokes if you don’t put it on in one direction.
- Opacity – Fully opaque with just one coat! I would still recommend two coats to ensure even color and for wear since you can’t wear this polish with a basecoat.
- Color – It actually looks just like the bottle! A super shiny foiled pink. Awesome.
- Dry Time – Super fast! One coat drys in literally under 3 minutes.
- Durability – I’d give it a low durability rating – it started to wear on my tips by the end of the first day. It doesn’t help the formula that the polish works best without a basecoat, topcoat and with one thick layer – all factors that do not add up to a long lasting manicure. BUT SHINY!
- Removal – Easy – came off as easily as any regular solid color nail polish.
- Staining – None that I noticed*. (*With this color – the blues did spread out all over my skin and may stain if left on).
- Ease of Use – Honestly it’s not the easiest polish to work with – or the hardest. It’s only difficult because you have to apply the polish all in one direction and rather quickly since it does dry very fast.
- Recommend It – Yes, yes, yes! As long as you don’t mind your nail’s imperfections showing through and a short lived manicure, this one’s a sure show stopper. This is a perfect polish for a night out when you want a quick and fast manicure with MAXIMUM impact.
Sally Hansen ColorFoil Colors
So many shiny colors! A few of them looked similar to me so I didn’t grab them all right away. For example “Yellow Gold” and “Liquid Gold” looked very similar, as did “Titanium Flush” and “Pink Platinum” as well as “Minted Metal” and “Cobalt Chrome”. So I picked one of each of those three sets that I thought looked best on my skin tone, or that I just liked better. The complete collection:
- Titanium Flush – dark magenta (purple-pink) color
- Pink Platinum – lavender color, with more pink than purple
- Leaden Lilac – darker sea blue
- Liquid Gold – golden color with a brown base
- Minted Metal – minty green
- Rose Copper – a pink color with a brown base
- Purple Alloy – slightly lighter traditional purple
- Cobalt Chrome – deep medium blue with a bit of green for a jewel effect
- Yellow Gold – golden color with a yellow base
- Sterling Silver – regular silver that looks just like chrome
Sally Hansen ColorFoil Directions
- Don’t apply basecoat (lol!).
- Shake polish well. This one really needs it.
- Apply 2-3 thin coats, or 1-2 regular coats.
- The official instructions recommend no topcoat, but I say experiment with the ones that you have. I didn’t have any issues.
- Touch up as needed.
Other Blogger’s Reviews
- Swatch Sunday: Sally Hansen Color Foils by Adventures in Acetone
- Sally Hansen Color Foil Swatches by Betty’s Beauty Bombs
- Swatches of Sally Hansen Color Foil Nail Makeup Nail Polish by Confessions of a Drugstore Stalker
- Sally Hansen Color Foils by The Polished Mommy
Thanks for the shout out! Your review is well done!
Thanks! LOVE all your photos – I always look for the reviews that have the best photos and advice about the product.
I need to get one of these someday! I am also tempted by those big square bottles for some reason lol
These are AWESOME! I am actually wearing all 5 of the ones I own right now for an upcoming look – can’t stop staring, lol! I like the square bottles too. They line up nicely with the Sugar Coat bottles too.
I crazy about this entire collection! So much so that I bought it twice! 😛
Me too! I wish I had the whole collection, I’m still working on my first set 😉